Constructivist Approaches to Phonics and Vocabulary Instruction (K-6)

Timothy Rasinski Ph.D., (trasinsk@kent.edu) (330-672-0649)www.timrasinski.com (see presentation materials)

Twitter: @timrasinski1

A Model of Reading Instruction

Words Word StudyAccuracy in:

Phonics (Word Recognition)SpellingVocabulary

Fluency Fluency InstructionAutomaticity Assisted ReadingProsody Repeated Reading

Surface levelDeep level

Comprehension Guided ReadingBackground Knowledge

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Comprehension Strategies

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Word Harvesting

Whenever reading to your students, reciting a poem, singing a song, or playing a word

game in your class if you or your students notice any interesting words, have them call out

the words at the end of the read aloud or word game. Write the word on a daily word wall

and talk about the meaning of the words and begin to use the words in your own oral

language over the next several days. Encourage your students also to use the words in their

oral and written language.

If you read to your students every day of the school year and harvest 5-6 words after each

read aloud you will have exposed your students to 900-1180 new words over the course of a

school year. That alone will have a significant impact on your students’ word knowledge.

Since authors purposefully use interesting words in their writing, students will find a treasure

trove of words in the materials that are read to them or that they read on their own.

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Today’s Word Wall

Word Ladders

From: McCandliss, Beck, Sandak, & Perfetti. (2003). Focusing attention on decoding for children with poor reading skills: Design and preliminary tests of the word building intervention. Scientific Studies in Reading, 7(1), 75-104

Initially, the children demonstrated deficits in decoding, reading comprehension, and phonemic awareness skills. The Word Building intervention directed attention to each grapheme position within a word through a procedure of progressive minimal pairing of words that differed by one grapheme. Relative to children randomly assigned to a control group, children assigned to the intervention

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condition demonstrated significantly greater improvements in standardized measures of phonological awareness, decoding, and reading comprehension.

Daily Word Ladders

girl dog black short snowgill dig block shore showgrill big lock sore shoethrill bit lick more hoetill bat lice mire holeBill rat slice wire moleball cat slide tire malebay lid tile aleboy lit till ail

wit tall mailwhite main

rain

leaf mean key walk firstlean lean donkeymean Len monkeyman men monkmain mad honkmane made Hankmade trade ranktrade tirade racktread rocktree lock run last

1. Anagrams: See www.wordsmith.org/anagram/ Select the “advanced”setting and then respond YES to “Select candidate words only?”

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2. For Making and Writing Words article by Tim Rasinski go to www.readingonline.org and search in “articles” under my name Rasinski, or for my 2 articles Making and Writing Words and Making and Writing Words Using Letter Patterns. Both articles have the forms you can download and print out and use for yourself.

3. For more on Word Ladders see – Scholastic, (Tel: 800-242-7737, choose option #3)Daily Word Ladders for Teaching phonics and vocabulary Gr 1Daily Word Ladders for Teaching phonics and vocabulary, Gr 2-3Daily Word Ladders for Teaching phonics and vocabulary, Gr 4+

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Making and Writing Words

Vowels  

   

Consonants  

   

1     6     11  

2     7     12  

3     8     13 

4     9     14

5     10   15

TransferT-1  T-2  T-3 

T-4  T-5  T-6 

Fr: Rasinski, T. (1999). Making and writing words. Reading Online. Available at http://www.readingonline.org/articles/rasinski/. Permission to photocopy for educational use is granted.

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Making and Writing Words 

Vowels  

   

Consonants  

   

1  5    

2    6   

3    7  

4    8  

Transfer

T-1  T-2 

T-3  T-4

 Fr: Rasinski, T. (1999). Making and writing words. Reading Online. Available at http://www.readingonline.org/articles/rasinski/. Permission to photocopy for educational use is granted.

See. Making and Writing Words. Rasinski and Heym. http://www.shelleducation.com/rasinski.php

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The Most Common Word Families (Phonograms)

Word Family (Phonogram) Poems-ank and –ad

Happy Hank played a prankOn his mom and dad.They didn’t like it.He got spanked. -ayNow Happy Hank is sad.TR Bikes are to ride

All of the day.Places to goSo far away.Sidewalks and pathsPlaces to stray.Riding a bikeWhat a great way to play

-ob Greg

Diddle diddle dumplingMy son Bob.Skinned his knee And began to sob.Gave him a pickle And corn on the cobDiddle diddle dumplingMy son Bob.

TRFor more information see Poems for Building Reading Skills. Shell Educational Publishing.http://www.shelleducation.com/rasinski.php or Call: 877-777-3450

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By adding a beginning letter(s) to these word families, students can spell and read 654 one syllable words!

-ab -at -ink -ore -unk-ack -ay -ip -ot -y-ag -ell -ight -out-ail -est -ill -ow (how, chow)-ain -ew -im -ow (bow, throw)-am -ed -in -op-an -eed -ine -uck-ank -ick -ob -ug-ap -ing -ock -um

Essential Latin and Greek Derivations Worth Teaching

PrefixesAnte beforeAnti againstAuto selfBi twoCenti hundredCo (m,n) with, togetherExtra more, beyondMega largeMicro smallMid middleMono oneMulti manyPre beforeRe againSemi, hemi half

Other word partsAero air Scop seeAud hear Struct buildBiblio book Terr(a) landBio life Therm heatChron time Volv rollDem people Vor eatGram write Polis cityGraph write Port carryHydr water Photo lightLab work Phon soundMand order Phob fearMax greatest Pod foot

Some Interesting Word Creations ala Shakespeare

Autophile Matermand Bibliophobe TeleterraSemiaud

For more info: See Building Vocabulary Through Word Roots. Teacher Created Materialswww.teachercreatedmaterials.com search “Building Vocabulary”

Rasinski, et. al. (2008). Greek and Latin Roots.Heys to Building Vocabulary. Shell Education. www.teachercreatedmaterials.com search “Greek and Latin Roots Keys to Building Vocabulary”

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Weekly Word Wall

Figurative Language (Idioms) – Challenging vocabulary for students.

The Story of Romeo and Juliet Told Through Sports Idioms

Right off of the bat, Romeo knew he was in love with Juliet. The problem was that across the board, the Capulets hated the Montagues. Romeo was behind the eight ball before he even had a chance to get the ball rolling. He knew it would be tough to score points with Juliet’s parents, but he didn’t throw in the towel quite yet. He danced with her at the Capulet’s ball, and their relationship was off and running. When Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, saw them together, he blew the whistle on Romeo. Juliet’s father said that he would call the shots because it was his party, and Romeo was allowed to stay.

Romeo and Juliet dove right into a relationship and got married. It was smooth sailing for them until Tybalt killed Romeo’s friend Mercutio. Romeo had to level the playing field and get back at Tybalt, so he killed him. Romeo was down for the count when the Prince banished him. No one was in his corner except his love, Juliet. Defeated, he rolled with the punches and moved to Mantua.

His friend, Balthasar, wanted to touch base with him, but ended up throwing him a curve. Balthasar mistakenly thought Juliet was dead. Romeo couldn’t believe this was happening at this stage of the game; he was supposed to go get Juliet, and they were going to run away together. Romeo really dropped the ball after that. He lay down next to Juliet and took his own life. When Juliet awoke and saw her husband dead, she thought, “That’s the way the ball bounces,” and stabbed herself.

The parents of the young lovers were shocked by what had happened. The announcement of their children’s deaths had come out of left field. They decided to tackle the problem of their long feud and built statues in memory of their lost children.

Leedy, Lorreen (Illustrator) and Street, Pat (author). (2003). There’s a Frog in My Throat. New York: Holiday House

And also www.idiomconnection.com

Some categories for IdiomsFootballBasketballColorsNumbersNautical/WaterChurchFishFood/KitchenCars and TrucksStars and SpacePlants, Flowers, and TreesHorsesDogsCatsFarmsFactory – WorkSeasons/Weather

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